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Topic: Warren Firefighter Shortage (Read 26061 times)

The number had been bumped up to 17 more layoffs and also the mechanic was to have been transfered to operations. The daily roster would end up at 4 men plus dispatcher a/c and safety officer. Hardly much of a compliment for any serious fire.

WARREN - More than 100 picketed City Hall Friday with the message the community's safety is at risk and that the administration should reexamine its priorities amidst its ongoing budget problems.

While the picket was planned about two weeks ago, they also emphasized that Tuesday's fire that seriously injured a police officer and three women could have had a different outcome if a closer fire station had been open and more firefighters been on staff.

"We want the residents to know the numbers we're running with right now are unsafe," said firefighter union president Marc Titus. "We can't afford more cuts."

Atlantic Street N.E. and Parkman Road stations are periodically closed, and the department is down by 19 after ongoing budget problems and layoffs.

The union has been told if it does not find a way to cut costs, 15 additional firefighters would be laid off. The city still faces a $1.5 million deficit. Last week, the union suggested Mayor Michael O'Brien resign.

The manpower issue and station closure came up again this week, after a fire at 368 Bonnie Brae Ave. N.E. Police officer Doug Hipple was injured in the intentionally set fire along with three women who lived at the group home.

Officials said firefighters could have arrived one minute earlier if the Atlantic Street station had been open. The department has 56 firefighters but capacity for 75.

Mike Taylor, Ohio Association of Professional Firefighters representative, said at the picket even with 75 firefighters, the city by national standards would be running short ''of what they should have.'' Taylor said he represents 53 departments in northeast Ohio, and Warren's has the largest number of firefighters laid off.

"We're asking the city to set priorities," said Titus. "Are we going to keep another park open?"

O'Brien said the administration is frustrated with the financial situation as well. He said he would like to see the laid off firefighters brought back to work, but asked where the money would come from.

"According to the auditor's figures, each firefighter costs $85,000 per year with wage and fringe benefits," O'Brien said.

He also provided a spreadsheet that shows estimated income tax collections for 2009 is $15.1 million, the lowest amount collected since an income tax increase for safety forces was approved in 2001. The collection amount in 2001 was $15.8 million, the spreadsheet shows.

It also shows 84.1 percent of the income tax collection in 2001 went to safety forces, while 99.3 percent of the collection is going to safety forces this year. O'Brien said that means salaries for police and fire are eating up a larger portion of the income tax collection as the collection amount gets smaller.

"That's why we're asking that all employees, not just safety forces, to come to the table to reduce labor costs," O'Brien said.

But as some citizens grabbed T-shirts and signs at the picket, Union Street resident John Hanick said he believes they were picketing the wrong people.

"The firefighters, if they want to picket someone, I think they should picket Lordstown (GM),'' said Hanick. ''The revenue comes from those taxes that pay their wages, and get them back to work to get money back to the city.''

Hanick said he lives close to the closed station on Palmyra Road, but said the city is doing what it can with its current finances.

''It depends on the city's finances, and that's what they're doing,'' he said. ''The city is watching their budget and choosing to shut manpower off.''

Titus said the city could have planned for the problems sooner, with the closure of Delphi and declining population.

''Nothing has changed since December 31,'' said Titus. ''We're spending money now just as we were before. We feel there's still money to be made around here.''

The cuts they made already had an affect with the fire that the police officer was injured at and now they want to cut more. Not sure where the money will come from but they better figure something out pretty quick. If nothing else they better consider some mutual aid and/or automatic aid agreements.

Warren, firefighters reach deal to avert 18 more layoffsStory by Ed Runyan in the Youngstown Vindicator on 6/18/2009.

Tentative deals also were reached with all city unions on health-care premiums.

WARREN — City officials and union representatives for the Warren Fire Department reached a tentative agreement Wednesday to avert the layoff of 18 more firefighters July 3. That deal must be approved by firefighters.

In a separate meeting earlier Wednesday, representatives of all six unions representing city employees tentatively agreed to begin paying a percentage of their health care for the first time.

Meanwhile, Gary Cicero, the city’s human resources director, said the layoffs of five more police officers and 11 other city employees this Sunday appear certain, as no further negotiations are scheduled on that front.

The city laid off 20 police officers, 11 firefighters and eight other city employees Jan. 1 to offset a $1.2 million budget shortfall.

Marc Titus, president of Firefighters Local 204, wouldn’t say whether he will urge the membership to approve the agreement.

“That’s up to the membership to say what they think about it,” he said.

Neither Cicero, Titus nor Safety-Service Director Doug Franklin would give any details of the agreement. The ratification vote is expected to take place this weekend.

Patrol officers with the Warren Police Department accepted a four-year wage freeze in an agreement they ratified in April. They hoped the agreement would allow the city to use federal stimulus money to bring back some of the 20 police officers laid off on Jan. 1.

Titus said the tentative firefighters’ agreement anticipates the possibility that federal stimulus money being considered in Congress will pay for some of their laid-off members to be brought back to work.

Wednesday’s agreement does not give the city enough money to rehire any firefighters but does allow the city to retain all 58 of its current firefighters through 2009, Titus said.

Franklin praised the firefighters, saying they “stepped up to the plate and addressed the issues of safety in good faith at the bargaining table. It benefits the residents of Warren and the firefighters.”

Without the agreement, 18 firefighters would have been laid off July 3, Cicero said, reducing their ranks to 40.

The notices will still go out Thursday, but if the union ratifies the agreement, the layoffs will not be implemented, Cicero said.

The agreement reached with all of the unions regarding health- care concessions will help reduce the city’s $1.5 million budget deficit for 2009, but will not avert any layoffs on its own, Cicero said.

Cicero would not say what percentage of health care employees will contribute. Warren workers are among the only government workers in Trumbull and Mahoning counties not yet paying a portion of their health-care premiums.

Also, four patrolmen and one narcotics officer will lose their jobs effective Sunday, along with two of the four employees at the Packard Music Hall and nine employees in the water and wastewater departments.

, Cicero said.

The five layoffs in the police department will reduce its staffing level to 56. Before Jan. 1, the department had 81 officers.

Auditor David Griffing said in late March the city would need to cut another $1.5 million from its 2009 general fund budget as a result of health-care cost increases for 2009 and lower revenue projections because of job losses at the Severstal steel mill and other businesses.

WARREN — By a 75 percent margin, Warren’s firefighter union has ratified a contract covering the last six months of 2009 that reduces wages and benefits by about 10 percent and saves the cash-strapped city about $473,000.

The concessions include a 2.5 percent reduction in pay, elimination of the city’s paying the 6 percent pickup of the firefighters’ pension costs, $400 annual uniform allowance, $500 annual attendance bonus, longevity pay and changes in their health-care coverage.

Marc Titus, president of Firefighters Local 204, said the concessions result in the 58 firefighters giving the city 29 percent of the money needed to offset its $1.6 million shortfall, even though the firefighters make just 23 percent of the wages in the city’s general fund.

“We’ve always stated that safety is paramount,” Titus said.

“We voted for our safety and citizen safety,” he said — adding that the vote was not a vote of confidence for Mayor Michael O’Brien.

“This is not saying we agreed to the way the mayor is running the city,” Titus said. “If we took that vote, it would be 100 percent against.”

Titus said he believes city officials such as council members and administrators should also take wage cuts that match the concessions firefighters have made.

Titus noted that the firefighters are working under a three-year contract signed Jan. 1 that called for a one-year wage freeze, reductions in rank for three firefighters, elimination of nine positions through attrition and layoff of 15 firefighters (four of them being vacancies not filled).

The city had threatened to lay off 18 more firefighters July 3 if the union did not accept the most recent concessions.

Under the agreement, starting firefighters will earn $12.24 per hour, firefighters with three years’ experience will earn $17.48, lieutenants will earn $20.11, captains will earn $23.15 and assistant chiefs will make $26.59.

Titus declined to explain all of the changes to the firefighters’ health care plan but said the change does not require firefighters to begin paying a percentage of their health-care premium. Instead, it involves higher co-pays for office visits and the like.

The city expects to save $250,000 in 2009 as a result of health care changes tentatively approved by all six of the city’s unions on Wednesday.

Union chooses cuts over layoffsWarren firefighters accept reduced pay, challenge others in city to follow suitStory by DARCIE LORENO in the Tribune Chronicle on 6/20/2009.

Fact Box

concessions

- Elimination of pension pickup

- A 2.5-percent wage cut

- Change in design of health care plan

- Elimination of longevity pay

- Elimination of annual $500 attendance bonus

- Elimination of annual $400 uniform allowance

- Elimination of 15-minute overtime pay during roll call

WARREN - The city's firefighters Friday agreed to a six-month contract addendum giving up $473,000 worth of benefits and pay to avoid the layoffs of another 18 firefighters.

With a 44-14 vote, they also hoped to send a message to other workers in the city, starting with its leadership and administration.

"We're going to challenge leadership and administration to make the same concessions," Marc Titus, president of the International Association of Firefighters Local 204, said. "We didn't do this because we agree with the way the mayor is running the city. We did it to protect the people of this city."

The union held the vote Friday morning. The addendum is good for the remainder of the union's current contract, which expires Dec. 31.

Among concessions - which equal a total 10 percent cut - was elimination of a 6 percent pickup of firefighter pension costs, longevity pay and an attendance bonus which gives firefighters $400 if they don't call off sick during the summer and another $100 in the fall.

Also gone is a yearly $400 uniform allowance and 15 minutes per shift of overtime, which was paid based on the time firefighters spent getting briefed and during roll call before their shifts began.

Lastly, the union accepted a 2.5-percent pay cut. Under the new rates, firefighters with three years of experience would make $17.58 per hour vs. $18.01 before the cut, for example. A starting firefighter would begin at $12.54 per hour.

Eighteen firefighters faced layoffs by July 1 before the agreement was reached. Thursday, the union and city officials reached a tentative agreement after the union approached the city with a counterproposal to a concessions package sought by the city.

The union already has given up the reduction of 15 firefighters through layoffs and attrition, a reduction in rank for a handful of firefighters and a pay freeze, Titus said. Eleven firefighters - along with 29 other city workers - were laid off Jan. 1 to help trim a $3.2 million general fund budget shortfall. The city faced a $1.5 million shortfall.

If the 18 had been laid off, shifts would have gone down to 13 firefighters each, with only two to three available to fight a fire, Titus said.

He hopes City Council and city administration will look other places to find revenue sources.

"We're always stepping up to the plate," Titus said. "No one likes to give up their money."

Safety-Service Director Doug Franklin said Friday he was grateful to the union and hopes all unions - including for management - will accept similar concessionary agreements currently being sculpted.

"We worked hard at it," Franklin said. "There were a lot of hours of back and forth discussion of each and every concessionary point. I want to extend my gratitude to the entire membership of the firefighters union for doing what's best for the city and citizens."

The city intends to "pursue aggressively" similar agreements to other city unions so equal sacrifices are spread across the board, Franklin said. The concessions will be taken before management, he said.

"We have a lot of work ahead of us," he said.

Titus said the city is still banking on funding through the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response Act grant, which would bring back laid off firefighters and retain current firefighters.

WARREN - When City Council votes on the 2010 budget next week, it could include 15 fewer employees.

A worksheet provided by Auditor David Griffing outlined major changes he made to the budget prepared Oct. 30. One of the most significant changes is a reduction in staffing, including eight employees in the general fund and seven in the enterprise funds.

Two firefighters, Jim Poptic and Tyler James, received layoff notices Monday. Both have been with the department since 2002.

In addition to the two firefighters, layoff notices have been prepared for two police officers and one employee each in the health, finance, parks and purchasing departments. Four employees in the water pollution control department and three in the water department also are to be laid off, according to Griffing's report.

Safety-Service Director Doug Franklin and Mayor Michael O'Brien stressed during a finance committee meeting Tuesday that the layoffs can be averted with concessions by the city's five bargaining unions. Human Resources Director Gary Cicero was not at the meeting because he was in union negotiations, O'Brien said.

In July, the administration received wage and benefit concessions from every union, which helped make up a $1.5 million shortfall caused by lagging income tax revenue. Those concessions came on top of 40 layoffs Jan. 1, including 19 police officers and 11 firefighters.

Council approved a contract with the police dispatching union last month that includes a change in hospitalization and the use of part-time dispatchers. Five union contracts expire Dec. 31, including those with the police ranking and patrol unions, firefighters and two American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

The budget prepared Oct. 30 had a $692,000 shortfall that Griffing plugged by shortchanging employee healthcare. The administration planned to make up the amount through healthcare concessions.

On Tuesday, Griffing said the revised budget fully funds the employee health care and instead includes the layoffs as well as separation pay for the affected employees. He said $400,000 was saved in healthcare costs by the city switching to a PPO plan, but the city needs to save $1.2 million to avoid layoffs.

"In order to get to the full amount of savings, we need the unions to agree to paying a portion of their premiums. There is no indication the unions are willing to do that, so we had to cut staffing," Griffing said.

Franklin said the city is developing a plan to deal with the staffing shortages but he said the administration hopes the plan will not be needed.

"Our goal is to not have any more layoffs through cooperation from the unions," he said.

Councilman Doc Pugh, D-6th Ward, said he is disappointed the police department will shrink again after all the recent progress that has been made with drug raids in cooperation with the Trumbull Ashtabula Group Law Enforcement Task Force. He said he was hoping an officer could be dedicated to the task force so the city can rejoin it.

Police Chief Tim Bowers said the cuts will leave him with 57 officers, which he said is "a bare bones operation." He said the staffing level is so low that he has to call an officer out for overtime almost daily.

"With these numbers, I cannot attach an officer to TAG," Bowers said.

Fire Chief Ken Nussle said the two losses in his department will leave him with 50 firefighters compared to 75 one year ago. He said four retired at the end of 2008, 11 were laid off Jan. 1 and eight more retired in 2009.

"I am just angry, but it doesn't do any good to voice my opinion," Nussle said prior to the meeting.

His main concern was the lack of training funds, which are budgeted at $1,000. There was $5,000 budgeted in 2009 and less than $2,000 was used, but Councilwoman Sue Hartman, D-7th Ward, who chairs the police and fire committee, said there were two-year certifications expiring in 2010 that would need renewed.

After some discussion, council voted to transfer $2,925 from its budget to the fire department training budget. Griffing said $1,000 came from council's travel expenses and $1,925 came from training and education. Hartman suggested leaving $75 in for training because $62 was spent last year.

Griffing said the law department will need to prepare new legislation for passing the 2010 budget to reflect the change. There is another finance meeting Tuesday and council is expected to vote on the budget Dec. 23.

mkosinski@tribtoday.com

Logged

Paul G.KD8DEL

Buckeye 53

Unfortunately, this has been happening, is happening, and will continue to happen for many communities in Ohio and all across America. You see lots of posts on this site & others about this decline of our fire service. I really feel for the laid off members and those who remain. It was always a tough job when you had money and now I can't imagine what it's like to be on the job. City leadrers really don't have any comprehension what it takes to do this job safely & effectively. And most don't have the tools or knowledge it takes to stem the bleeding of their revenue as the good paying jobs of yesteryear disappear. I really like to visit & photograph in cities like Detroit, Cincinnati, and Dayton and they have been taking a beating since the mid 1970's. They are not the only ones either. I look back at their department strengths back when I started on the job in 1974 and it's amazing how they have continued to do the great job they do. And, I am afraid that the cuts are not over for them or others that are struggling with budget issues right now. This will be a very dark chapter in the history of the fire service. Good Luck & God Bless.Stay Strong & Stay Safe :'(

we are all in the hurt right now... unfortunately my city IS fiscally stable but finds it convieniant to lower manpower just because the neighboring cities are doing it.

it's a mess here and everywhere.

IMO, the cities across this country know that the Fire Departments are the most dedicated employees in any city. They can put a Clapp and Jones Steamer in a firehouse with 3 men and they would still find a way to respond.

FWIW, mostly in the bigger cites, sitting rooms are more than likely furniture one of the Brothers brought in when the wifey wanted new stuff. Same thing for sliverware, and drinking glasses are cleaned out spaghetti sauce jars. Maybe (and luckily) smaller cities furnished firehouse quarters decently to sustain a 24 hour tour, but you never see that in a big city. How many Brothers are good with a hammer, saw, wrench and a paintbrush and did repairs or painted around a firehouse. Something you would never see a teacher do.

The Fire Departments are always the first to do more with less. This Chief has lost a big percentage of his men with 25 or so layoffs and retirements (33%), which is a big hit anywhere. With 12,000 officers and men, that would be like the FDNY laying off 4,000 men. We are hearing rumors of 25 companies closing next year,though I'm sure it will be 'negotiated' to maybe 10.

Even with these cuts, the Brothers will still do the job. And these cities know it as well.

The economy is tough all over, yet fire protection is always one of the first. Our zeal, dedication and tradition to do what we have to do no matter what is now being used against us. JMO.

Car crash attests to Warren’s ambulance-response problemsStory By ED RUNYAN from the Youngstown Vindicator on 6/5/2010.

WARREN

When Crystal Lough’s 1998 Oldsmobile was rear-ended Wednesday afternoon on Youngstown Road near the Trumbull County Board of Elections, it caused extensive damage to the car.

Though her sons — Landon, 18 months, and Bryce, 21/2 — were in the back strapped into car seats and appeared to be OK, she still was concerned.

She called 911 from her cell phone about 4:10 p.m. And although a police officer arrived about five minutes later, and firefighters were there about 10 minutes later, it took until about 4:35 p.m. — 25 minutes after her call — for an ambulance from Howland to arrive.

Warren 911 records say Lough, her boys and her mother were taken at 4:43 p.m. to St. Joseph Health Center.

“The guy told me Warren was busy, all the ambulances were busy at the same time,” Crystal’s mother, Crystal Richmond, said of the Warren policeman and firefighter who waited with the family for the ambulance.

“It’s a good thing they [her grandsons] weren’t bleeding to death,” Richmond said Thursday from her home in Warren Township.

In fact, the ambulance company under contract with the city of Warren to provide ambulance service — Med Star EMS and Transport — was so tied up that it was unable to respond to three ambulance calls Wednesday afternoon between 4:03 p.m. and 4:28 p.m.

In addition to the Lough crash, Med Star was unable to send an ambulance to a call of a man shot in the chest on Southern Boulevard Northwest and a minor emergency on Tod Avenue Northwest.

An ambulance from Lane LifeTrans Paramedics responded to the gunshot wound, which turned out to be a suicide, and Warren Township firefighters responded to the minor emergency on Tod Avenue.

Warren firefighters also responded to all three calls because the city has unwritten agreements with the Howland and Warren township fire departments that Warren firefighters will respond to all calls in Warren to which the Warren Township and Howland Township ambulances go.

The Warren Fire Department sent firefighters to the gunshot call answered by Lane LifeTrans because Warren firefighters knew that Med Star didn’t have an ambulance to send and was searching for another ambulance company to take the call, said Ken Nussle, fire chief.

But what concerns Warren firefighters is that because its department doesn’t provide ambulance services, and few of its employees are trained to provide medical care, they are of relatively little help at such calls.

“The problem is feeling helpless at times,” Nussle said.

Nussle added that because his department does not run an EMS service such as most paid fire departments, it isn’t authorized to provide such service and could run into liability problems for providing medical care under such circumstances.

Nussle said city officials had a meeting with Joe Robinson, owner of Med Star, a couple of months ago after noticing that Med Star was not responding to an increasing number of calls.

“Joe [Robinson] said he wanted to put another ambulance on, but he couldn’t afford to,” Nussle said.

Robinson was not available to comment Thursday and Friday. A woman at Med Star, who declined to provide her name, said she was an officer of the company.

“In this day in Warren, where the majority of people don’t have insurance, we’re doing the best we can,” she said, explaining that a population without insurance or a job is a poor source of revenue for an ambulance company.

To make a profit, Med Star has to operate as lean as possible, which means sometimes Med Star is “pulling [employees] out of the hospital [to get to another EMS call], and they haven’t even finished their paperwork yet” from the previous call, she said.

In the case of the shooting victim Wednesday, Lane Life Trans of Niles was the third ambulance company Med Star called that afternoon for help because Action Ambulance and Clemente McKay of Warren also were too busy to take the call, she said.

“What people have to remember is we’re in a tough economy. We’re trying to survive,” she said, adding that police officers, firefighters and EMS workers all deserve thanks for “doing more with less” during these tough economic times.

Warren Police Chief Tim Bowers said the relationship with Med Star is “not working as well as I’d like,” adding, “All I know is when I need an ambulance, I need one, and when they say they don’t have one, that’s unacceptable, and it happens too often. By contract, they [Med Star] are supposed to respond, but what do you do about a it?”

Marc Titus, president of the union representing Warren’s firefighters, said the proposal he and his colleagues made in January 2009 to have the Warren Fire Department provide EMS service again after about 25 years without it would provide Warren residents with a better quality of ambulance response and make Warren firefighters more efficient by having them cross-trained to provide two types of service.

WARREN - City officials said they still are waiting to hear from the federal government if they will receive a grant that will replace laid-off firefighters and hire others lost to attrition.

Fire Chief Ken Nussle and Melinda Holsopple, who writes grants for the city, both said they have not heard officially whether the city's application for the SAFER - or Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response - grant has been reviewed.

''It's still up in the air,'' Nussle said.

The grant, offered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Homeland Security, gives municipalities money to replace firefighters who have been laid off, Nussle said.

The city laid off 11 firefighters at the beginning of 2009 because of the city's financial woes and also has lost an additional 12 through retirement that have not been replaced, Nussle said. He said he was hoping to use the grant funds to replace all 23 firefighters.

The city can receive funds to replace up to all 23 of those firefighters or just one or two, Nussle said.

Warren is competing with more than 2,000 departments nationwide for part of $210 million. The grants are to be handed out by Sept. 30. So far, Niles has been the only local community to receive any SAFER money, according to FEMA's website. It received about $240,000.

The funding pool is now down to $28 million for departments across the country, Nussle said.

Anyone hired with the money will be funded by the grant for two years, according to the chief.

Nussle said the grant is needed because the city lost so many firefighters in such a short period of time. The department had 75 firefighters before the layoffs.

He said if the city receives the grant, they will start to bring back laid-off firefighters who wish to come back first. He said he is pushing for a new entry level Civil Service test for firefighters because there is no hiring list now and he wants to have one available should the city need it.

If Warren is left out of this round of funding, it can re-apply under the 2010 SAFER grant this fall.